The tap on the shoulder happened in the High Point cafeteria. There stood sophomore Clay Nurse, minding his own business, when football coach Messay Hailemariam asked him, "Why aren't you out for football?"

Nurse's answer was some version of "What's football?"

Mom and Dad are planning to move to the C-U area. They spent part of Nathan's official visit weekend checking out possible homes.

"It will be a good situation," Nathan said. "I'm not going to be taking my laundry over there, having dinner every night there."

The News-Gazette was granted behind-the-scenes access to the officiating crew before, during and after last weekend's Illinois-Illinois State football game. Think all these guys do is show up Saturday afternoon and start dropping yellow hankies? Hardly. From meetings to film study, travel to evaluations, one thing's for certain ... These guys earn their stripes.

UI athletes have a method to their number-choosing madness. Some have a personal connection, some are taken out of necessity, some are chosen through habit.

Basketball guard Jeffrey Jordan would seem a natural fit for No. 23, and he wore No. 32 in high school. (You can do the math.) But at Illinois he honored his mother by choosing No. 13. "It's my mom's birthday," Jordan said then, referring to June 13.

"Not trying to say that I'm better than anybody, but I don't think a lot of people could bounce back from the situation I had," Smith said. "I never hung my head — not in public. In my house I would. But my family gave me a lot of strength because there were times I really didn't even want to play basketball."

If there's a misconception about Bubba, it's that he's simply a hard-working floor-burner but a so-so athlete. He's actually one of the Illini's best athletes, a 180-pound speedster who finished second in the team's timed mile and needs an extra plate on the weight bar.

Bubba is no scrub-ba.

During the Michigan-Connecticut game, Huskies star Hasheem Thabeet blocked a Wolverines shot.

"I said, 'Hasheem said get that weak shhhh..ot out of here,' " Bardo said "John Saunders about lost his lunch and the producer in my ear is laughing."

Ron, you have chastised me because, in your view, I "don't believe." That's true, although I "believed" the Illini would be improved over last season. But my job is to follow the team, not to believe in it.